Description of Research Expertise

Dr. Ashburn was a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow from 1995 - 1996, where he served as a health policy advisor for Senator Orrin Hatch (R, UT) in Washington, DC. He served as the Chairman of the Pain Care Coalition from 2000-2002, and as the chair of the Pennsylvania Pain Coalition from 2009 to 2012. Dr. Ashburn has served as a consultant to the Drug Enforcement Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Justice, and the Food and Drug Administration, and was a member of the Anesthesia and Life Saving Drugs Advisory Board for the Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Ashburn is currently serving on the Pennsylvania House Advisory Committee on Opioid Addiction and the Pennsylvania State Task Force on Prescription Drug Abuse.

Dr. Ashburn's research interests include the conduct of clinical trials to evaluate the safety and efficacy of new methods for the treatment of acute and chronic pain. In addition, Dr. Ashburn have been active in the development and implementation of patient-reported outcome measures in pain and palliative care, and the use of the information obtained from this information to improve the process of patient care, and ultimately patient outcomes. Ongoing projects include several projects related to improving the care of patients receiving chronic opioids for the treatment of non cancer pain.

Description of Clinical Expertise

Dr. Ashburn is professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care, and a Senior Fellow of the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the Director of the Penn Pain Medicine Center and Co-Director of the Palliative Care Program at the Abramson Cancer Center. The focus of Dr. Ashburn's clinical practice is pain medicine and palliative care, including the medical management of patients with complex pain problems as well as the use of interventional therapy for the treatment of pain.

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Last updated: 12/08/2016
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